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Digital Marketing at the Golden Globes 2019: Who Wins Best Marketing Campaign for Drama?

The 2019 Golden Globes are coming up fast. To get in the spirit, we decided to evaluate each of the best picture drama films’ social and digital campaigns to see which stood out. Let’s take a look at what this year had to offer!

Black Panther

Based on the Marvel comics character, Black Panther rocked box office sales and topped the Marvel film franchise’s all-time record for first-day advance ticket sales.

For their marketing efforts, the Black Panther campaign teamed up with different promotional partners. Lexus, Brisk, and Synchrony Bank all joined the movie’s team for promotional events, which included a sweepstakes and the release of behind-the-scenes footage.

When looking at the film’s social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, you’ll see that the accounts are extremely interactive with over one million followers.

One specific tweet put out by the account showcased the “Black Panther Scholarship” which was awarded as a surprise to many women aspiring to be college students with an entertainment focus. The total amount of the scholarship came in at about $1.8 million.

With the amount of attention gained leading up to the release of the movie, many knew of the impact the film would have in the lives of many young children. The Boys and Girls Club of Harlem started a fundraiser to ensure that its members could secure seats for the movie.

This fundraiser set its goal at $10,000 and within four days the total amount of money raised was $45,000. This crowdfunded effort made headlines as many celebrities contributed. Other fundraisers arose following the success for the children of Harlem.

In the end, the marketing efforts for the film were quite impressive, as was the film’s impact. The budget for Black Panther was set at $200 million, with the total revenue made on the film clocking in at well over $1 billion.

BlacKkKlansman

From popular filmmakers Spike Lee and Jordan Peele comes the box office hit BlacKkKlansman. Based on a true story, this movie follows the life of Ron Stallworth, played by John David Washington, and his attempts to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan as an African-American man.

The movie sparked plenty of controversy even before its release date. With three different posters, a trailer, and a surplus of online advertisements, the movie was set to hit the box office in a big way.

Looking at the social media platforms for the movie, it has over one million interactions with audience members. The Twitter account comes in with around just under 15,000 followers. The content on the social media channels is extremely interactive with moviegoers. The account retweets, likes and shares the feedback from the audience.

Around the time that the movie was set to release, there was a major press push. Spike Lee was able to comment on the tone of the movie by saying that it was made to address the problems seen in society both then and now.

Bohemian Rhapsody

Based on the famous rock band Queen, this film is focused on the life and relationships of lead singer Freddie Mercury, who is played by Remi Malek.

The campaign of the movie was very interactive with its audience. On the movie’s website, an option titled “Put Me in Bohemian” became available. With this option, fans and audience members had the chance to submit samples of themselves singing various songs by the band that would then be played in the movie itself.

The accounts posted a lot of graphics and scenes from the movie even months after its release date. They also circulated interviews from the actors in the movie to garner attention from viewers. The movie’s social media channels rarely saw any interaction with fans and audience members, however.

After much of a PR push to promote the movie, interest in the band’s songs and albums skyrocketed, bringing renewed attention to the beloved band.

In the end, the marketing efforts paid off, as the movie budget was around $52 million and it generated over $180 million.

If Beale Street Could Talk

Debuting on Christmas Day 2018, this movie is set in 1970s Harlem and follows the love story of two African-American people. Director Barry Jenkins is no stranger to the movie industry. In 2016, his film Moonlight won an Academy Award for best picture.

Likely due to the smaller nature of the film, the social media channels lacked attention from audience members. The movie’s Twitter account has just over 6,000 followers.

The content on their Twitter account is very interactive with fans, however, with the moderators retweeting and liking various tweets to help establish a connection.

With the budget of the film projected at around $12 million, and the previous success of Moonlight, it will be interesting to see the impact If Beale Street Could Talk will have on the box office and audience members.

A Star Is Born

This film, starring the iconic duo of Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, is the latest remake of Hollywood’s favorite rags-to-riches story.

A variety of posters and trailers were released to promote the movie and major promotional partners like Live Nation and Citi Private Pass helped to boost the film’s buzz.

The movie’s campaign focused on a series of TV spots and online advertisements that were aimed at a very broad target audience.

The movie’s social media channels feature a lot of posters and clips from the movie with captions relative to the holiday season. There is not much interaction with fans on the media channels, as the accounts mainly interact with other verified accounts that mention the movie directly. The Twitter has just under 60,000 followers.

The film’s budget was listed at $6 million and so far has generated well over $300 million in worldwide box office sales.

And the Winner Is…

Based on what we know, it is safe to conclude that the winner of the 2019 Golden Globes marketing campaign winner for the drama category is Black Panther.

With the film’s official trailer being released on October 16, it brought in over 17 million views. And the movie itself is breaking records, ones that the filmmakers never originally expected. It became the second biggest Marvel grosser in North America, following The Avengers.

Black Panther is ranked as the seventh largest superhero movie ever on a worldwide scale and is the third fastest-growing movie so far. If you haven’t seen it, make sure you do and be sure to tune in to the Golden Globes on January 6 to see if it wins big!

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